What
is HTML?

HTML is a computer language devised
to allow website creation. These websites can then be viewed by anyone else
connected to the Internet. It is relatively
easy to learn, with the basics being accessible to most people
in one sitting; and quite powerful in
what it allows you to create. It is
constantly undergoing revision and evolution to
meet the demands and requirements of the growing Internet audience under the
direction of the

» W3C, the organisation charged with
designing and maintaining the language.

The definition of HTML is HyperText
Markup Language.

• HyperText is the method by which
  you move around on the web — by clicking on special text called
  hyperlinks which bring you to the next page. The fact that it
  is hyper just means it
  is not linear — i.e. you can go to any place
  on the Internet whenever you want by clicking on links — there
  is no set order to do things in.


• Markup is
  what HTML tags do to the text
  inside them. They mark it as a certain type of text (italicised
  text, for example).


• HTML is a Language, as it has
  code-words and syntax like any other language.

How does it work?

HTML consists of a series of short
codes typed into a text-file by the site author — these are the tags.
The text is then saved as a html file,
and viewed through a

browser, like Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator.
This browser reads the file and translates the
text into a visible form, hopefully rendering
the page as the author had intended. Writing your own HTML entails using tags
correctly to create your vision. You can use
anything from a rudimentary text-editor to a powerful graphical editor to create
HTML pages.

What are the tags up to?

The tags are what separate normal text from
HTML code. You might know them as the words between the
<triangle-brackets>. They allow all the cool stuff like images and tables
and stuff, just by telling your browser what to
render on the page. Different tags will perform different functions. The tags
themselves don’t appear when you view your page through a browser, but their
effects do. The simplest tags do nothing more than apply formatting to some
text, like this:

<b>These words will be bold</b>,
and these will not.

In the example above, the <b> tags were wrapped around some
text, and their effect will be that the contained text will be bolded when
viewed through an ordinary web browser.

If you want to see a list of a load of tags
to see what’s ahead of you, look at

this tag reference. Learning the tags
themselves is dealt with in the next section of
this website,
My First Site.

Is this
going to take long?

Well, it depends on what you want from it.
Knowing HTML will take only a few days of reading and learning the
codes for what you want. You can have

the basics down in an hour. Once you know the tags you can create HTML
pages.

However, using HTML and designing good websites
is a different story, which
is why I try to do more than just teach you code
here at HTMLSource — I like to add in as much
advice as possible too. Good website design is
half skill and half talent, I reckon. Learning techniques and
correct use of your tag knowledge will improve your work immensely, and a good
understanding of general design and the audience you’re trying to reach will
improve your website’s chances of success. Luckily, these things can be
researched and understood, as long as you’re willing to work at it so you can
output better websites.

The range of skills you will learn as a result of running your own website
is impressive. You’ll learn about aspects of
graphic design, typography and computer programming. Your efficiency with
computers in general increases.You’ll also learn about promotion and your
writing will probably improve too, as you adapt to write for certain audiences.

Do I have to be online all the time?

Not at all. You can code your entire website offline,
storing it all on your own computer, and then just transfer all the files onto
the web. Then whenever you have new content, you just add that to the existing
online version of your site. It’s really quite simple.

Is there anything HTML can’t
do?

Of course, but since making websites became more popular and needs increased
many other supporting languages have been created to allow new stuff to happen,
plus HTML is

modified every few years to make way for improvements.

Cascading Stylesheets are used to control how your pages are presented, and
make pages more accessible. Basic special effects and interaction
is provided by

JavaScript, which adds a lot of power to basic HTML. Most of this
advanced stuff is for later down the road, but
when using all of these technologies together, you have a lot of power at your disposal.

---

Why not get a quick view of times gone by with
The History
of HTML? If you think you’re ready to start coding, head over to the
My First Site section
and begin creating!

---

A guide to learning
html for beginners.

HTML are initials that stand for Hyper Text
Markup Language

• 
  Hyper is the opposite of linear. It used to
  be that computer programs had to move in a linear fashion. This before this,
  this before this, and so on. HTML does not
  hold to that pattern and allows the person viewing the World Wide
  Web page to go anywhere, any time they want.


• 
  Text is what you will use. English letters,
  just like you use everyday..


• 
  Markup is what you will do. You will write in
  plain English and then mark up what you wrote.


• 
  Language. Some may argue that technically
  html is a code, but you write html in plain, everyday English language.

HTML is the code behind your webpage and is
what your browser looks for to display a webpage, the way the webdesigner
intended it to look, and is a series of tags <tags>
that tells the browser where to display what. It is really a series of simple
commands that you give to the browser, just like telling your dog to sit, and
because it is in plain English it is easy to learn. For example, if you want
your text to show in a bold type, you command it <bold>
to be bold text </bold>, it really is that easy.

Keep this in mind: HTML documents must be
text only.

When you save a HTML document, you must save
only the text, nothing else. HTML browsers
can only read text. Look at your keyboard. See the letters and numbers and
little signs like % and @ and *? There are 128 in all (read upper- and lowercase
letters as two). That's text. That's what the browser reads. It simply doesn't
understand anything else.



Remember that if you are using Notepad,
Wordpad, or Simple Text, the document will be saved as text with no extra
prompting. Just choose SAVE.

If you are
going to start learning to write HTML, it is
a good idea to learn to look at other authors' HTML
pages. The actual html potion of the page behind the pretty page you see in
front of you now.

Looking at
another's html code helps you learn how things are done and you can copy the
style of pages that you like. Please do not just steal and copy the pages, but
no one will be upset if you make the style in much the same way. For example, if
you were going to build a house, you would look around to see what styles you
like before deciding on your own design. Same thing here, look around the web
and see what styles you like and apply them to your own ideas.

Here's how
you look at an HTML document (known as the "source
code")

• When you find a page
  you like, click on VIEW at the top of the
  screen.


• Choose
  SOURCE from the menu.


• The
  HTML document will appear on the screen.
  

Try it with this page.
Click on VIEW and then choose the
SOURCE.

It will look like mumbo jumbo right now, but soon it'll be readable and you'll
be able to find exactly how a certain HTML
presentation was performed.





What are HTML Tags?

HTML works in a very simple, very logical, format. It reads like you
do, top to bottom, left to right. HTML is
written with TEXT. What you use to set
certain sections apart as bigger text, smaller text, bold text, underlined text,
is a series of tags.

Think of tags as commands. For example if you want a line of text to
be bold. You will put a tag at the exact point you want the bold lettering to
start <bold>and another tag where you want the bold
lettering to stop.</bold> There you have an example of how tags make
commands and tell the browser how to display the text. Just like telling a dog
to sit. You give the command.

All tags that are opened
must correspondingly be closed, just as if you are writing a quoted statement
with those "inverted commas". A tag is closed this way
</tag> therefore we open a new tag <bold>
and close the tag </bold>

Different
tags call different functions. A full list of html tags and their functions is
provided

here.

Like to
write a page of html. C'mon, let's do it together

here.